STLB: Visited Systems
Eriandi Crew wakes up, finds themselves in the proto-planetary disc of Alpha Eriandi, talks to the Greys, acquiring a cloak and a grey crewmember "Miner" aka Dwight. The crew sells data and discusses things with the plants, then they survey the constellation. Beta has a rainbow planet that the two clans are vying for, Gamma and Delta have the corresponding homeworlds of the two clans. The crew use a self-created maser comms unit to get in between the two craft to intercept and echo back different messages than the ones sent. Crew eventually grosses out the RD clan, who are attacked upon breaking ranks by the SP clan. Scans of the Rainbow Planet reveal the existence of FTL coordinates to the next constellation. Tauri The crew first surveys the area. SPC is a new clan borne of the winning clan of Eriandi. They find the three clans attempting to out maneuver each other for a risky landing to acquire an artifact on the surface of Epsilon. Later, they find that the system has two more systems in it, one very well nuked, but in antiquity, and Eta which is untouched by the ST; There's life on most celestial bodies. The greys and the plants both pay handsomely for this knowledge, but the greys cannot unload the system fully before the Saurothrop show up. The artifact at Epsilon is destroyed by Miner using the Mining laser. Muscae The crew surveys the constellation and find 3 ST clans battling over the system. There are a pair of system that are uninhibited. Upon observation in Delta, the crew finds a new kind of life form floating in on an interstellar comet. The bugs attempt to explain to the crew that they require water or energy to survive and procreate. The crew was less than enthusiastic and the bugs moved to take root in this system. The crew did trade water for coords? Calliiope This masterpiece has the crew follow the death of the Octos in reverse. Alpha, they meet the octos. One or two tried to board. Beta, a TIK fleet asks for help from MDK to counter a cloaked vessel that they say attack them. In Gamma, the crew attacks a small'ish fleets, launching the octos onto those damaged starships, which Jump out of system. Finally, DElta is a plant system, protoplanatray disk, and MDK and TIK combined fleets are headed to attack the octos in Alpha. The crew returned there, octos say "You killed us!" and then the crew leaves without incident. At some point before this Miner insisted on leaving the ship, due to the crew exploitation of his talents against his will. He refused to mine for weapons. Crew had him mine, then used the output to make weapons. Something something consent. At some point before now, the SPC Prima battle commander was baited by the crew to come to their vessel via EVA, under the impression that there will be a one on one fight to the death. Instead, the ship took this Saurothrop (VP) into its crew. Captain has express romantic interests with the creature and those have been, at least in part, reciprocated. VP has willingly joined the crew to learn more effective ways of Xenocide. At some point before this, the crew acquired a set of faulty coordinates, leading to inside the schwarzschild barrier of a blackhole. Most clans at this point have sent numerous starships to defeat this new threat (since Xenocide trumps infighting 100% of the time). This has left numerous systems open for bug expansion. Arcturus Two rival SPC sects exist here, as well as a Javvan battleship and another artifact on a landable SuperDense planet. The crew was able to have a conversation with the Javvan who claim they are on pilgrimage to get the artifact, but will gladly accept the crews help. VP goes on an away missions, leading the two fleets into open combat, while also grabbing a bucket full of throps and part of a gravity sensor, which may lead to cached coordinate bearing data. The crew sold the artifact to the The Plants, and they also threw in VP's throp collection, which had increased since originally brought abroad. They received a ship size upgrade (Scout to Destroyer), a comm probe, upgraded space suits (can survive Saurothrop temps) and a few more items. The Plants hand the crew an orb to toss into the star at Gamma Draconis, and gives the crew coords. Draconis The crew found Octos in Alpha trying to take down some bugs. Crew offered to help, but octos said "Go destroy the artifact in Gamma. Beta had a Saurothrop clan (Best Destroyers) stalemated with a few bug fleets. One fleet was heavily laded with RI. The crew Jumped to Gamma. This system is very unique. The blue star at the center of the system is missing most of its gravity, which is fluctuating. Their is an ancient but completely built ST battleship, with a lone, very underdeveloped crewmen, giving a perpetual sermon on the doctrine. There is a large orbital station controlling traffic to the star, countless nameless clans all line up to throw RI into the star. The crew, somehow, successfully gets in line and is not attacked. They toss the plants orb into the Sun... and then enter it themselves. They discover the decaying structure and begin discussing how to destroy it. An unidentified ST battleship, fully built and clean, intercepts the crew. The crew successfully ducks away under the cover of the massive pylons and pillars. After finding a planet at the core, larger than their thrusters capacity, they smoke the Javvan oracle weed and hear the planets/Oracle song. They fly around the planet and discover an apparently liquid area. Turns out, its an ancient AC derelict, with one crewmember - an incorporeal and possibly insane entity which is invited back to the ship when the crew absorbs the bulk of the derelict starship. They escape to Epsilon Draconis, finding the VM clan and the bugs at a stalemate. They find the two opposed fleets in a stalemate/gridlocked fashion and consider shooting at either the inner system bug, or the bugs blockading the VM crystal laden fleet. Then we Jump to Zeta Draconis where the system has been overrun by bugs. The crew decide to approach cloaked and space-walk to get inside the largest "Mama" bug. The crew returns to their ship and finishes some handheld weapon schematics, and then decide to attack the mamabug outright. The mamabug replies, annoyed, and they come to a non-aggression pact with the Bugs. After the crew insisting to 'help' destroy Blue Star, the mamabug hands them a pair of larvae to drop off at its core. One attacks the crew, but gets hammed up by the bug resistant armor, the second was passive and was deposited. Th crew when back, alerted both Octos in Draconis "We destroyed it for you!", which was received well by both groups. The crew ends at Muscae, at the Plant station, to retrieve the new coordinates. Antilae Crew hit up the Plants who had coordinates for the crew. The crew wanted to do some trades, selling their logs, a creature called 'stitch'. The Plants ran code to "merge" the two ships, to include losing the logs from the other ship, although the crew did copy them beforehand. Crew received a new crew member from the plants and and cloak upgrade. They finally left and went to Alpha Antilae. Found the system with lifeforms all over, making Saurothrop exploration of this system unlikely. There was a cracked planet, but it was few bugs finishing eating the primary planet. Beta Antilae had a similar scene, life on most orbitals and a bug-cracked planet. Delta Antilae had a far more damaged appearance as the bugs had cracked multiple planets. Crew detected faint life readings in the asteroid belt and traced them to an (abandoned?) base. Crew disembarked in EVA suits V2, found their way through the 4-armed doors until they found one section of corridor/door that showed obvious signs of damage, either keeping something in - or keeping something out. Crew desired to finish mods to their V3 suits before returning. They returned to the damaged door in their V3 suits and opened it, to find an alien automaton stuck in the doors mechanisms on the other side. They shot it to death. Exploring deeper, they found a room filled with water and could not open the door. They manged to find an pressure checking device and were able to leech out most of the water. They entered the room to find "the device" and a data cube (for lack of a better word). It read: " *Death came from beyond our solar system, just as we began to explore it. We tried to fight it, but we were no match for a creature born and bred to destroy. We thought this device would be our last hope. They have breached our blockade and are en route to our planet. We hope that by evacuating this complex, you will be able to finish the device and save whoever is left. You are our cousins in this, without regard to fin strength, pheromone variance or even if you don't breathe water; You are our cousins and we want to see you... safe~* Crew finally arrived at Gamma Antilae, and there they discovered a lot of life, and also a sentient floating species in the upper atmosphere in one of the systems gas giants. They begin a dialogue via radio, but the session ended. Crew synced languages with the Jellies , and left a Comm Pod with (?what?) to help mine more info about the Jellies, or something. They then used their new Tachyon Projector on a small bug remaining in system. The projector completely crippled the wings of the bug, and also congealed around some component inside the bug. The bug attempted to escape via FTL (no wings) and after a massive power surge, only about half the bug left the system, leaving the rest as a disgusting shredded bag of slop. Crew landed to take a ton of samples, and found that various liquids and tissues all had different DNA. Finally, the crew flew to the edge of the system, and attempted to research new coordinates directly to a plant station (in lieu of flyng thru about 10 hostile systems). Pollux Crew finishes researching coords and Jumps into Alpha. It's a plant station, and the Greys immediately head toward you, asking that you sell your data to them first. They have reason to believe you have found *life* and would greatly enjoy "~keeping them ~ safe~". Crew mutes Greys, and deals with Plants. They sell their data to the plants, and agree to not distribute the data. The Crew agrees to take on a Lump, which they are to fly to Gamma and then follow its orders, in exchange for currency. The Greys still hound the crew, their orb spinning. Crew Jumps to Beta, observes a 3-way find between the SPC, Octos, and Bugs. They witness the Octo carrier ship firing crew pods at both combatants. Crew Jumps to Gamma. There is a Hydrocarbon planet and a Water planet. In orbit, there is a plant beacon warning everyone to not disturb / attack the planet below. The Water planet is inhabited by Javvans, and the Grey loiter nearby. The SPC and Bugs are present, orbiting at a distance, taking warning shots at each other and generally waiting for a chance to attack the planet. A pair of starships, SPC and Bug, wait in outer orbit, with starships Jumping in as replacements. The Lump has the players make physical contact with the beacon. The crew manages to do this without breaking cloak. Next, the Lump says to land on the Water planet (size 8, thrusters rated for 4). After a close call, they land at a Javvan village safely. This planet is biologically incompatible with the crew, so they will need space suits. Lump patches into their suits comms and sensors. It needs DNA samples, which can be obtained by prolonged skin-to-skin contact, or by any normal way (blood and whatever). The crew exited the ship in the countryside near a large city, has per the Lump. The crew ran into their first target, Johan, and due to a mis-translation, they were lead to a sex club. The crew pickpocketed and traded services for money and got intoxicated off the local intoxicants which were far more potent than Terran fare. DNA collection went well during various club maneuvers, which the crew went into partial space suits, and the atmosphere stung, but they could easily acquire bodily fluids. A pair of new crew members, who had access to the log, were able to met the rest of the crew at the club. The new crew was able to get the final DNA of "12". The crew managed to get sufficient DNA and the next waypoint was in the Pyramid, so the crew went back to the ship to wait until daylight, using a stolen key fob to their transit system. Once daylight, the crew returned to the pyramid to attempt to gain entry. After being rebuffed at the main entrance, They found a side door and discovered how to open doors. They investigated their way to the source of the lumps direction, a guarded oracle. The crew managed to get into the chamber messily, and had a talk with the Oracle. The lump requested that they kill him. He knows this, and cautions against it After some discussion the Oracles 2nd in command arrived, some suspect devices were discovered, but before more discussion, the Oracle was slain and the party escaped, barely, into their ship. The crew escaped the planet, and went to Alpha to turn in the lump. The pyramid was observed to be the very top of a large and ancient starship, which was now in the process of evacuating the planet and taking off. They observed the 3 way battle in beta. Octos were present, and they asked if the crew had any non-citizens onboard. Crew got a basic understanding of their culture: Citizens are octos who helped capture one of the component ships. Non-citizens have not been deploy against the enemy. The crew receives payment for the lump, briefly discussed buying technology, but the Plants offer another lump with another mission. They want the crew to fire the Tachyon projector at other ships. The crew agrees. In beta, they try to cozy up to the octos ship (same as the one in alpha, aged about 50 years) but collide with it instead. Thankfully the octos did not perceive the threat. The bugs went into full retreat, consuming their larvae for the raw materials to grow high speed engines. The crew then fired on a Saurthrop vessel. The ships tried to fire on us but missed. The spoilt ST ship tried to fly out system, but was eviscerated when they engaged their FTL. The crew Jumped to Gamma, and fired the Tachyon projector at the Javvan ship. The ship had not left the planet even, but the lump was satisfied. The Grey loitered nearby, and upon discussing, cautioned the crew about using the projector on them, since they will likely "redirect the energies back to their source". The was ready to disembark toward Delta. The crew finds a SPC controlled star system organizing themselves for a large scale assault, and this includes ships and fleet from other clans. This means they were going to commit xenocide. The leader of this force, "Prima", the Admiral of Admirals, is VP's old second in command, AD. They have their reunion and VP proposes to return to the fleet to garner support for an alliance. VP attempts to leave but is stopped after being found carrying the data for the Tacyhon Projector. During the ensuing negotiation, the crew does not want to offer VP anything, but VP insists that returning empty handed would be disastrous, they agree to let VP take coordinates to Antilae and one occupied pod. VP is seen fairly shortly after arrived on comms, broadcasting to the fleet with AD, about the future of the operation. Suddenly, VP attacks and kills AD, takes charge on the fleet, and declares a break from doctrine. All the ships in the fleet start shooting at one another, but SPC had a decisive advantage. VP also broadcast a note to the crew: * You captured me, denying me the honorable combat that doctrine demands. You subjected yourself to me in ways I had no capacity to understand. You had agreed to show me a better way, a stronger way. I recognized your power over the warring clans, and I was desperate to learn your secrets. * Now I understand your power. Our doctrine was not our strength, but our weakness. Like , we were chained to something dead. Now I live. '' * ''My new clan will finally cast off the anchor that slowed our progress. We will no longer pursue Xenocide. * Because with every new species we conquer|subjugate, our new Empire will be stronger. We will race across the stars, growing larger and more powerful, without limit. '' * ''Assimilation is more powerful than extermination, and we will no longer need to control the Galaxy alone and divided. As the Saurothrop civil war was breaking out in earnest, the players left to explore Epsilon. Upon Jumping to Epsilon, the crew discovered a small world trapped into orbit by a gas giant, that has large quantities of frozen, subterranean water. And as expected, it was swarming with bugs. The crew debated their next action as a group of damaged Saurothrop ships Jumped in, trying to escape the brewing civil war. The Bugs swarmed them and destroyed them. However, Mama Bug took flight and openly hailed the cloaked vessel. Mama Bug said the following: * There is a cold wind blowing. Our summer shores already gave way to the heat of the Saurothrop. Something different is coming. Something worse. '' * ''We know you have the Tachyon weapon. We know what you did to our sister. Do not consider her tortured death as your victory. Nothing victorious can come from such a vile weapon. You will come to feel it's blade. * We could stop the Saurothrop for you. We can stop the spread of death that was unabated until now. We need that water planet. The Crew found this as a bargaining point, and began to discuss the various things the bugs have to offer, as well as the various tasks the bugs would want help with. It was decided that the crew would take a large mysterious package to the water planet (deposit into a large body of water) for Mama Bug before the system descended into chaos following the departure of the Javvan vessel(s). In return, Mama Bug would provide: * Coordinates to Corvii * Armor technology (to be specified later) * Absorbed technology (to be specified later) * Info on how the Greys do tracking: ** Know we are in-system ** Know what system we may appear in before we appear there ** Spying on our internal data/communications The crew agreed, and took the large package onboard. Unexpectedly, another lifeform that claimed to be "Bug Technology" appeared in the VR, with full sentient equal rights/consensus. Called by former human crews "Seraphim" or Sera for short, she briefly struggled to get access to ships systems. Upon brief discussion, the crew allowed access to minor systems and proceeded to Jump to Gamma. Once in Gamma, crew found an active battle situation taking place above the Water planet. The Greys were flitting about between the battle, the ground, and the plant beacon. The plant beacon would issue orders to ships, of all types, that came too close from violating the planet. Javvan city-ships were nearly ready to leave. The crew flew toward the planet, but their most experienced pilot was not available. Sera created a piloting VI, and the crew managed to make it down to the surface. The plant beacon issued a warning: "Take nothing, leave nothing, exit immediately or their with be financial repercussions". The crew convinced the plant beacon that they were only returning items to the surface that they had previously taken. The dropped the bug package into the deepest part of the ocean, then dropped the staff from earlier into the semi-abandoned city. The crew had a much more challenging time escaping the planets gravity, and incurred heavy damage (8/9 hp). Sera remembered to check Action Rolls and was able to make snap repairs of the ship. The crew made it to the edge of the system to Jump back to Epsilon. Maybe. The crew enter Epsilon, where they attempted to turn in the existing quest. Mama Bug was concerned that your computers had been negatively effected by the journey, and she insisted on wiping it from the ships computer. Sera said not to, Mama Bug was looking for her. After a brief discussion on Sera's utility, the crew accepted lesser terms (Coordinates to Corvii, Armor tech, and Sera told her about the Greys tracking) and flew away. The crew flew to Alpha to refuel. The Plants insisted on having full access to the ships data. Sera insisted on "No", claiming the Plants were looking for her. The Plants agreed to triple the typical payout for the data, so the crew doctored the outboard data to omit Sera's presence. The Crew received the payout and free repair/refuel. Corvii The crew did not go directly to Corvii, instead passing through previous star systems. They flew back through Antilae, and observed SPC fleets uplifting the Jellies, from peaceful wholesome gas puffs, to angery bags of murder. The Jellie home planet was emblazoned in a massive world war, while Saurothrop agents helped them develop weapons and starships. The crew stopped at Epsilon Draconis(Bluestar) and found a system thoroughly defeated by the SPC. Numerous ships carried crystal outbound to Bluestar, taking the shortest path possible to FTL. The return flight, however, all came from the same angle. The crew was collecting data with the intent on attacking of the ships and stealing its crystal. The crew invented a tether to come into physical contact with other starships with the intent on hacking them. They were able to hacking one of the outbound starships and make it eject some of its payload, stored in a bomb launcher bay. They successfully liberated 4 units, but one was destroyed on impact with the ship. The 3 remaining units became 300 EU of crystal onboard. The crew then flew directly to Alpha Corvii. Alpha Corvii was a SPC controlled system in severe disrepair. The inhabitants long since forgot why they were there, and were running the system out of minerals by deploying billions of Tachyon mines. These mines has polluted the system with Tachyons, and no ships who entered could leave. A dialogue was maintained with them, who recognized The Captain from their stories / oral tradition. The crew discovered that they gained most of their new material from ships that flew into system, and then collided with the mines, the cloak being the only thing that saved the crew. They were then able to produce the same "wiggle" as the minelayers, making the mines ignore them. The crew attempted to create a Tachyon sweeper by blasting various random energies to emulate The Grey's ability to dissipate Tachyons. They were not successful, but their equipment did 'echo' off the minelayers equipment. The Crew tethered to the minelayer, under the ruse of an upgrade. They did complete the upgrade, but the minelayers ancient krusty power system exploded when their upgraded Tachyon system went online. They took what was left of the device out of the minelayer and to the edge of the system, and was able to sweep their own Tachyons, allowing the FTL to spool and Jump to Beta. In Beta, the crew found an Octo carrier orbiting a Green moon, who began shooting at the crew. They struck up a discussion, and agreed to take the uncitizen warriors to a glorious battle. They alos provided a weird map, that pathed the ship to save as might warroris as possible, and dock with their station, for purposes unclear. The octos starting pumping the goop they use for atmo and/or food, and the crew had the ship absorb it for energy. The octos said, something rough on the translator, inquiring and or telling the crew something about the flow. The crew undocked from the station, opened fire on the octos, bomb and tachyon, and then left with only minor damage. The crew then Jumped to Gamma, where a pritene set of worlds were under the scrutiny of The Greys. The instant they noticed us, they hauled ass towards us, insisted they had to dock and access the ships computer, stating there was something terribly wrong with it. . Sera insisted that was a terrible idea, and it would expose her presence. The crew Jjumped to Delta. Upon arrival, the crew observed a rainbow planet with a bizarre orbiting space station. After that, the ships AI disappeared, the lights above the crews heads went off, and they were left listless in the VR. If someone attempted to engage a system (eg, cloak) the system itself did not appear, but the controlling glyph did. By manipulating the glyphs the crew had discovered direct access to: * Cloak ** and required power * Engines (Gravity/Impulse) ** and power ** and navigation * Leave pod * Sensors ** and power ** Life ** Matter Leaving the appended working things in the above nested list. The crew discovered that Sera, and her doppelgangers, were using their combined processing ability to keep the starship in one piece. Using the unlocked Matter sensor, they were able to pilot to a few wrecks. The first had a stitch-like being named Pinky. So moved by the crews (false) tale of plight, Pinky used a peculiar time dilation maneuver to transfer the crew back to their ship with the data for building denser, more Health Box inducing upgrade. The next ship was nearly gone, and they heard a faint whisper from its inhabitant, "Kill me", when they boarded. The crew obliged, consume the derelict craft and gaining 300 EU worth of alien metal. The final ship boarded appeared to be a sort of chubby disk, with a geiger'esque aesthetic to it. Sort of like the picture I just uploaded. Onboard, the crew found an atypical Grey, who was wearing strange clothing and had physical items on them, in VR at least. The Grey invited the crew to absorb their ship into his and escape. Instead, one of the crew went back for a *jumpstarter* and came back with a glowing purple cube from Sera, triggering the time dilation effect on the Grey, while un tethering the crew from the need to get group consensus. The crew escaped and will probably resume looting. The crew did in fact resume looting. First they got there hands on the "almond" ship, whose technology increased the crews total power amount after a critical success. They then went after the "colony" ship, and acquired the ships thrusters, again after a well placed critical success. Finally the crew went after what appeared to be a fully intact Saurothrop vessel. They chose to board the vessel, and found their way into a control room of some type. Desiccated Saurothrop bodies hung from various spinal shunts (samples taken) around the room. Also with one beachball sized, very patched in, device remaining. The ship also had a message to their rescuers, assumed to be another ST craft, but it has not been played/read/played/whatever. The players absorbed the remaining functional nanites, who provided technology to increase their HP. The final wreck was difficult to spot, as it was a very little amount of material spread very thin. It was a starship, and the crew moonwalked over. They found an external valve that ''that appeared to act as an airlock of sorts. While attempting to express the valve, two crew were sucked inside while the other was left standing on the valve, but still outside. She shot the valve and fell thru the tear. This ship was full of jellies, with a full ecosystem inside and the drive/FTL technologies strung together via a sill-string like material. The interior sheathing was AC nanites '''that came from the Sacrifice'. Probably via VP. The jellies did not appear to know nor understand how to save themselves and asked for the crew help. The crew left, and fired on the jellie ship, unzipping it with destructive energies: The jellies and their ecosystem were violently decompressed into space. The crew reabsorbed their own nanites and left the torn sack adrift. The crew entered Epsilon Corvii, and discovered an intact hydrocarbon planet that had a beacon of unknown origin in orbit. From a distance the crew scanned and discovered that the beacon was sensitive to gravity and that its external plating was made of advanced materials. The beacon also gave off life signs. As the crew approached, they were flanked by a hundred or few cloaked drones and were told "You should not have come here. Now I am forced to kill you." The crew continued on toward the beacon while conversing with the Keeper (aka bee-keeper), the apparent leader of the drones. Keeper needed to build a device, but needed certain minerals from the planets surface. If the crew got the minerals, Keeper would give them the schematic of the device, and activate the beacon. The beacon may or may not be generating a graviton planetary energy shield. The crew remembered they had octos onboard, since we had all forgotten them in the trunk for like 3 months, and dropped the octos down to the surface to do all the work. The crew, using its unpaid labor force, got the minerals to Keeper. Keeper left the drones in system(to protecc octos) and flew away happily. Crew received the device schematic, but did not investigate it. The crew investigated the device, and with Sera's help discovered that it is a Temporal Dampener, and that it could be used to safely navigate Delta Corvii. They Jumped into that system, and safely flew to the massive platform emitting the offending temporal signals mucking everyone's AI up. The platform has various universalized docking ports designed specifically to match AC starships. They docked with this port, dubbed "The spoon with a butthole". After docking with the spoon with a butthole, a second AI which is a little less blue-white and a little more off-white, asks census for entering the platform. Crew agrees, and the dock slurps down the crew like some reverse felching shit. Upon entering the platform, crew finds Sera had been dragged also, despite being offline and having not granted consensus. While Sera works on the computers, the crew distracts and harvests information from Brown and its platform. They discovered: * This platform had a different purpose, but REDACTED altered it REDACTED years ago * Platforms (new) primary mission is to Capture, Disabled, and Destroy AC tech. ** previous primary mission or purpose is unknown ** Brown intends on letting the crew starve so that there is no counter consensus and he can gain control of the ship *** Brown does not seem concerned about how long that will take * Brown is an equivalent AI to Cisco on the sacrifice; does not have feelings nor complex motivations, just following orders as best possible. ** Brown is not concerned with financial or material rewards, crew can't pay their way off * Crew can ask to be released from VR, and can wander about the massive platform ** The interior of the station is shifting and warping similar to any other gif of a 4-d shape. And sort of like Portal 2. The entrance is "holding still", but only because the crew haven't moved yet. ** Their are objects/entities floating around inside the chaos, booping each other and whatnot. Their appearance is like a fully activated glyph, spinning so fast they look solid and a little bright. Given enough questioning and data acquired, Sera says she can override parts of the AI and get the crew back to the ship safely. The crew continued their questioning, to include: * Brown knows the Sacrifice goes thru multiple cycles, has access tot he ships pre/un wiped computer systems ** The ship always starts in Eriandi. ** The ship always ends in REDACTED * Hundreds have bug ships have died here, their biology "counts" at AC tech * 42 Grey ships have been caught here, allow they eventually disappear from sensors. * and plenty of other interesting things. ... Sera gets what she needs, and the crew escapes. They head to a nearby plant system. A PHALANX Dreadnought fired their super-weapon at the ship before the ship finished Jumping in. Their commander and the commander of the surround PHALANX fleet is PF (Predatory Ferocity), and spent a last few seconds bloating, before the ship was struck. Time slows before the moment of impact and the crew is presented with the choice. They must *''Sacrifice'' a significant amount of equipment into an overpowered emergency Jump away from danger. If the ship did not have a glut of equipment to sacrifice, next would have been crewmembers. The ship Jumps. Circini This plant system exists outside the network and thru temporal variance shows *five different systems overlapped. One is fixed, and therefore real, and the crew interacts with the plant station. The plants caution the players on the following points: * You cannot involve yourself in this fight! The ST civil war, between VPs and PFs forces CANNOT withstand additional interference from your vessel! * The Galaxy demands equilibrium across all ST forces, so they can fragment and become a minor threat. As the band together into larger and larger groups, in response to threats deemed urgent and external, they become unwieldy. This civil war will end and all parties will reduce their level of conflict until equilibrium in restored. * Neither PF nor VP can die by your actions nor inactions (aka stay tf out of it). If this occurs, your account will be docked 40,000EU for one death, or 100,000EU for both. * To facilitate this, we would like to install a Lump (they paid) onto your ship, such that you can be properly informed before making any accidental incursions into this situation. * Sera will offered to modify it so that instead of spitting warnings (do this for $X, avoid for $X), it chains those together and outlines missions. * If you are struck by the Dreadnoughts beam weapon again, you may not make it here again. You will probably cease to exist. Sera finishes analysis of the gathered data and has found coords to Corona! Corona Alpha PHALANX, PF, Dread exit system as crew arrives. Tons of wrecks in the belt, very well exploded, and a bizarre gravitational anomaly in the inner system. Crew flies up to investigate ... It was the Dread's super-weapon! They BOOPed an entire planet and orbitals with the thing! The Crew chases the Dread into Beta. Gamma The Jump went weird and the crew landed in Gamma instead. FTL, you cant explain that! This system contains an unaligned (dumbdumb noname clan) ST colony which is settled below a massive alien shipyard that has long since been retrofitted to produce ST battleships. SPEC has taken command here and has worked with the below clan to produce battleships for their mutual defense. Additionally, brooding centers for bug ships are using the shipyards massive power outputs to breed bug ships for combat. These ships are lobotomized by SPEC and their larvae are sterilized, and can only eat to destroy. Sera has a lot of problems, as the lobotomized bug ships scream their sorrows into her brain. Her attendant VIs insist that she'll be fine, but that Sera needs to talk to them to dig up some kind of secret. The crew hailed and made nice with the commander here, and scanned a bunch of shit for the lumps mission payout. the commander wanted to talk shit, but the crew said "Show us VP". They directed to delta. Delta This system has a thick web of tachyon mines, and is the main SPEC base for this area. Various psionic weapons are installed on SPEC auxiliaries, and reek of Javvan lifesigns, probably in exquisite and unending pain. VP hails the ship: Rowan, I want to know the pride you feel for me. I took your teachings and was able to build an empire unlike any other. I was able to set up a chamber here, a VR you could survive and help me control all of our assets. Together. We could feel each others novelties, like we used to. If you come be with me, I will hand you ultra-rare, ultra-choice technology we discovered. It's not technically valuable to the ST, but I saved it because I knew it'd be valuable to you. Rowan wants VP to join the crew, VP believes Rowans joining would tie the whole ship to him, and some more general talking. PF, Dread+Fleet crash the party, and chase the ship into the asteroid belt. The crew manage to navigate it just fine, but they are followed by a force that simply destroys the entire asteroid+mine field in their path. VP hand the crew a device that will attract the mines, and the crew valiant facedives the dread to plant the mine-of-mines. As soon as the device activates, they turn tail and run. Looks like PF is gonna keep his dread another day. Sera finishes what she started, and announces that the secret is coords to Epsilon! The crew says farewell for now to VP, and Jumps. Epsilon The crew kicked on fast mode, so a lot of plying occurred. From here on out the log are no longer a narrative, but instead in notes form. * The JUMP is was rough, painful, and difficult. No longer were you piercing the tinny veil between time and space; now you were trapped and smothered, punching and clawing your way out of its ephemeral down comforter. * A lone moon orbits a dead star, it cosmic origins probably had it drifting between stars for millennia, gone rogue. You read a faint power source. * The system is full of heavy dust, but it soon becomes obvious this debris was from a space battle very long ago, and has spread thin as it became a semi-coherent orbiting disk/cloud. Cloud was from a battle between some long lost ST variant, and hunantech starships. * Cloud has chemical and geometric clues, has metals and materials and meta-materials. * nothing salvagable The lone planet has a goddamned mostly intact VDS Gunship * crew originally put down cuz battledamage, never got back up * lone survivor, long after the battle was done, put out the signal * ship salvagable ** nice railguns +1, AP +1 ** maxpower+25 ** gas giant slurping tube ** ... and ofc mad fuckin plot *** so they are part of VDS, aka alt-reality *** this battle was an escort mission, Vagabond got out... and no one else *** ship was too busted, dude lived here forever and went crazy and starved. *** COORDS to Procyon!! Procyon ... Alpha Upon warp-in, a nearby Grey ship begins frantically hailing. It's Miner aka Dwight! * "We intercepted~ you as soon as we heard~ Your discovery of Humans exploring and surviving deep space is both thrilling and harrowing~" .... "Please~ allow me to accompany you on your mission~ " ..... "We do not intend on interfering with any other crew~ or passenger~" * A cloaked ship hails: "You're here for the Artifact too, huh? Don't worry, I'm here to destroy it too. Keep the device I gave you close." ... It's the Keeper! .... but he Jumps. Beta * The ship sit at the edge of a massive nebula of chaotic and violent energies. The ship sensors identify this has "NegEn" negative energy. Like Crystal, when regular matter interacts with negative energy, the matter disappears and the negative energy may or may not remain. However, the difference is that with NegEn, absolutely nothing happens. This particle simply removes others from existence. '' * ''Your systems buckle under the onslught of the particle. The cloaking device fails as the outer hull is slowly worn away by the radiation. Ahead, in a much thuicker region of the nebula before it becomes completely impassible, is a crippled bug ship. It's hailing ** "Please help us. There is a technology onboard Mother needs. Please finish the delivery. " (NegEn Repulsor) ** Once we have it: "We knew you were coming. You've always been coming here. We always knew you were coming... to save us..." Mother said: * SPEC violated doctrine and drove many many clans together, which is due to wreck the entire Galaxy. ** Dread is a response, not it's own threat. ** PHALANX power draws from "The Artifact" * We can make it right, using larvae. If bugs have the Dread (and Artifact), everything goes great. Gamma Upon initial Jump-in: * This system is swarming the PHALANX battleships, as well as fleets from other factions. Every planet and moon has some kind of PHALANX presence, with a pair of large vibrant worlds in the inner system. The fabled PHALANX battleworld is among them, its satellite network are tracking every starship, and their orbital ring megastructure holds an immeasurable arsenal. '' * ''One fleet of Javvan vessels representing almost a dozen different prides approaches and hails you: "We know why you are here, and we have come to stop you. Across space and time, the Oracle screams as you approach. You are the harbingers of Death! You will not destroy that Oracle." ..... if they get cordial: "We will assist you, but we are capturing the Oracle and taking it with us." // No compromise. * A trio of Octo carriers have begun firing on you. //if you hail: "We will destroy you for ruining our species. Everywhere you go, you sow evil and death that we are forced to reap. We captured intel that said you were coming here, and now we will finally end this bane of our existence!" * The PHALANX battleworld hails as well: "You know why you are here, and even your pathetic allies cant help you. We will crush you to dust and keep The Artifact and our superiority for hundreds of thousands of years after everyone you ever knew was dead. But since *you* are insignificant, we will let you leave.. Just turn over your fleet, they aren't 'of you' anyways, so why would you care? Give us something/maneuver them to destroy them, and we will let you leave." The crew face dives the Artifact, as every fleets hunts them. Eventually, PHALANX and the other fleets begin fighting each other. SPEC forces Jump in and begin a 2 pronged attack on the PHALANX forces. Mother jumps in, with hundreds of small teams of kamakaze bug squads harass and disable PHALANX battleships. The Dreadnought DECLOAKS * "As you and your combine fleet approaches the battleworld, ready to fight and eager for the mission to end, a massive energy distortion emerges. It's the Dreadnought decloaking!! More PHALANX battleships are now flanking you and you and your fleet are caught between a rock and a hard place!" * PF hails: "Trigger your self-destruct devices for quick deaths. Either way, you all will die now, and we will scour every system you polluted, back thru the original SP Homeworld in Eriandi!" But the fleets don't back down and neither does the crew. Sera forms the hull and they smash into the bunker holding the Artifact. The Oracle. An Antecronus FTL node. Sera extracts its data, and finds coords to Earth. She wants to split ways, but the crew does not agree.... .. she triggers a bug larvae weapon and forces a Jump! The Crew, and VP too, arrive at Earth to see it ravaged by the Bugs they helped get there. Category:STLB